Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing law-abiding expatriates and I went ahead and used the thumbnail - I'm a big fan of The Big Lebowski - I love the phrase, "the Dude abides", so let's just jump in here. Why did I come up with that? It will become apparent here in a moment. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Rising crime prompts Visa-free policy review impacting Pattaya business and expat community. 

Before jumping in real quickly, I do get emails and things from folks, they say, "hey, is there any way to support you in what you do on the channel? We know you are not monetized. We also don't necessarily have to avail ourselves of a law firm. Is there anything we can do? Well if you want to support us, one thing you could do, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. The name is Pancake Palace, as the name implies, breakfast anytime, as well as American Diner style food. If you're interested, come down, check us out. Links are in the description below; we would love to see you. 

That said, let's jump in here under the sub headline: The legitimate expat community - quoting directly: "For law-abiding expatriates, the impending policy shift means one thing. Compliance is non-negotiable. The days of cutting corners on Visa documentation and neglecting local reporting requirements are gone." Well let's be clear. I remember when TM30 and 90-day reporting weren't a thing; Immigration just didn't do them. So it wasn't like foreigners were cutting corners, it was that Immigration itself wasn't affirmatively, proactively enforcing those laws, and then they did, and then foreigners had to start doing it. So I'm not putting some of this stuff entirely on the foreigners at the end of the day. Also look, let's also be really clear. A lot of this digitization is really totalitarian and quite dystopian in many, many ways. So me personally, the notion that people need to really be worried and all wound up like a coiled spring over all of this sort of Thai Immigration stuff, I don't know that I'm necessarily an adherent to that sort of notion; in fact I know I'm not. Quoting further: "While the administrative burden at Jomtien Immigration may increase in the coming months, a safer city with a transparent legal framework ultimately benefits the entire long-term expat community." Yeah, and that's a fair point. 

That said, I'm not sure how doing 90-day reporting as opposed to 180-day reporting; really, does not knowing a guy's address for an extra 90 days, is that going to result in him turning into a wolfman and devouring people throughout a city? There's a level in all of this where you have to say okay, people aren't coming to Thailand and turning into axe murders because they didn't file their TM30; I just don't see it. And also, I'm not in love with this digitization and all of this just wild overreach associated with matters pertaining to banking, taxes and immigration, in any context by the way. Again, even though I'm a naturalized Thai, and I don't have to deal with immigration matters per se, I am not unaware of the fact that what initially can happen to immigrants, can also be turned back around on the people that live in a country. We've seen that in the United States with regard to matters pertaining to ICE for example lately where they are saying, "well, we are only sending out ICE to go after illegal aliens", and then they are detaining people that are American citizens that have an accent and things. So at a certain point, enough is enough. 

That being said, and the purpose of this video is to remind folks that yeah, again 99.8888 infinity percent of expats really don't have to worry about much especially the retirees. If you're in line with your Visa, and you're not on overstay, you don't really need to be hyper-concerned about the legality of your stature. That being said, and the thing to take away from this video, is yeah there is heightened scrutiny going on in Thailand. You need to sort of act accordingly, but again, if you are operating in compliance with the law, you are probably going to be in a position where there is not much to worry about, here in the Kingdom of Thailand.